Proxi­mity as a chall­enge and strength

The media is in the midst of a deep crisis of trans­for­ma­tion. Regio­nal media outlets are dispro­por­tio­na­tely affec­ted by the disrup­tion. Various Euro­pean studies have docu­men­ted news and infor­ma­tion deserts, parti­cu­larly in rural regi­ons, such as eastern Germany. This has serious reper­cus­sions for the demo­cra­tic nature of our society.

In eastern Germany, but also in other parts of the world, we can see that this can also make it easier for groups with extreme posi­ti­ons to mobi­lise and assert their concerns.

Opting against media use

In Switz­er­land, such deve­lo­p­ments are taking hold less quickly than in neigh­bou­ring count­ries owing to fede­ral struc­tures and the multi­party system. Howe­ver, the trend is clear. The recently published ‘Jahr­buch Quali­tät der Medien 2024’, produ­ced by the Rese­arch Center for the Public Sphere and Society (foeg) at the Univer­sity of Zurich, states that although media concen­tra­tion is lower in regio­nal report­ing than in dome­stic and inter­na­tio­nal report­ing, the reuse of the same artic­les on regio­nal topics increased shar­ply in 2023 on the previous year for the first time. The foeg considers it proble­ma­tic if this deve­lo­p­ment of media concen­tra­tion in regio­nal report­ing conti­nues. Weber is even more concer­ned by the fact that 46 per cent of the Swiss popu­la­tion now state that they consume little or no news at all. Weber points out: ‘This is doubly dange­rous for the local media indus­try. On the one hand, fewer and fewer people are still willing to pay for media services, and on the other hand, the increase in media concen­tra­tion means that even more people are actively deci­ding against media use because they no longer feel addres­sed by local services.’ 

Support for regio­nal jour­na­lism 

The Natio­nal Coun­cil has also reco­g­nised this. On 26 Septem­ber 2024, it appro­ved the tempo­rary expan­sion of indi­rect press support. The aim is to prevent the emer­gence of media deserts, accor­ding to the Verband Schwei­zer Medien (VSM) [Swiss Media Asso­cia­tion]. But this decis­ion was not without contro­versy. Critics took aim at indi­rect press subsi­dies for simply slowing down unstoppable change. ‘The expan­sion of indi­rect press subsi­dies is inten­ded to support funding of postal deli­very with 15 million Swiss francs for a limi­ted period of seven years and early deli­very with 30 million Swiss francs per year. This prima­rily bene­fits regio­nal publi­ca­ti­ons with a circu­la­tion of less than 40,000 copies.

The Valais regio­nal news­pa­per has prepared itself for the future with its own app and edito­rial system. Bieler adds: ‘If you look at the deve­lo­p­ments in the natio­nal media indus­try in recent years, it is clear that things are beco­ming incre­asingly diffi­cult for daily news­pa­pers and radio stati­ons, espe­ci­ally in remote regions.’ 

The future of print

‘Print remains an important medium that will conti­nue to play a rele­vant role,’ belie­ves Devo­nas-Eberle. She explains that ‘for adver­ti­sers, it is a signi­fi­cant advan­tage that adver­ti­se­ments are actively seen in print media, whereas online, they are often clicked away or incre­asingly auto­ma­ti­cally remo­ved by ad blockers.’ That’s why she opts for print. Although it is noti­ceable that the compa­nies divide their commu­ni­ca­tion budgets between online and print and are less available for the indi­vi­dual titles, she says, loyalty to the Zolli­ker Zumi­ker Bote is still there. ‘We all know where jour­na­lism is headed in the future. We still earn the most money from the print news­pa­per,’ says Bieler of the Walli­ser Bote, ‘but things are moving more and more rapidly in the digi­tal direc­tion.’ He is convin­ced that subscrip­ti­ons will be key in future, which is why they have pushed ahead with digi­ta­li­sa­tion.  Devo­nas-Eberle belie­ves that the regio­nal newspaper’s wide distri­bu­tion and local roots conti­nue to be extre­mely attrac­tive for compa­nies with a local focus, as it reaches all house­holds in Zolli­kon and Zumikon and provi­des resi­dents with relia­ble infor­ma­tion on local events. Chris­toph Blocher’s Swiss Regio­me­dia is also banking on print. Accor­ding to its own figu­res, the publisher, with 29 titles in 19 regi­ons of German-spea­king Switz­er­land, reaches around one million cont­acts per week with an aggre­gate circu­la­tion of 901,504. This is a considera­ble figure.

Invol­ving the community

In Basel, Bern and Zurich, new online media outlets have emer­ged in recent years that are diver­si­fy­ing finan­ci­ally and getting in touch with their readers: Bajour, Haupt­stadt and Tsüri. All three have chosen we.publish for their IT infra­struc­ture. The oldest, Tsüri, will be ten years old this year. The regio­nal media outlet has by now estab­lished itself and has become a habit for many readers.

Because edito­rial resour­ces are often scarce, they have to focus on the topics most rele­vant to the commu­nity – in Zurich, this is the housing crisis.

It’s important that the day-to-day content serves not only insi­ders in Bern, but also new arri­vals who don’t (yet) have a connec­tion to local details. He empha­si­ses: ‘A regio­nal media outlet is only credi­ble if the publisher is local, i.e. if the busi­ness decis­i­ons are also made regio­nally or locally and if it takes on board sugges­ti­ons from readers.’

Conti­nuity builds habits

For more than five years, the Bajour team has been keeping people in the Basel region up to date with a daily news­let­ter, the Basel Brie­fing. ‘We offer a clear, rele­vant selec­tion of issues from the areas that shape our day-to-day and life here.

Bajour also high­lights the importance of inter­ac­ting with readers. Accor­ding to Hufschmid, ‘When we ask our ques­tion of the day, we get up to 2,500 respon­ses. This gives us a strong sense that we are reaching people and encou­ra­ging dialo­gue.’ The regio­nal media outlet addres­ses its commu­nity directly and uses Insta­gram and events in addi­tion to the daily brie­fing to talk to people rather than about them. The Walli­ser Bote commu­ni­ca­tes with its readers via social media. This is also where users who don’t have a subscrip­tion respond. Howe­ver, Herold Bieler points out that it is diffi­cult to acquire subscrip­ti­ons in this segment. And adds: ‘You can also comment on our online artic­les. Howe­ver, this is where many commen­ta­tors (too) often lack decency and respect.’ The Walli­ser Bote also conti­nues to publish reader letters on a regu­lar basis. In these, most readers express their opini­ons on poli­ti­cal issues. Readers’ letters are also a mode of dialo­gue for the Zolli­ker Zumi­ker Bote. This crea­tes space for criti­cisms of the outlet’s own artic­les, says Devo­nas-Eberle. In order to streng­then this at an insti­tu­tio­nal level, the Zolli­ker Zumi­ker Bote is curr­ently setting up a commit­tee for exter­nal news­pa­per critique.

A fresh start

While exis­ting media have to adapt their estab­lished proces­ses and vehic­les to new deve­lo­p­ments, the three online media outlets star­ted out free of prece­ding struc­tures. ‘We were able to reshape the inter­nal corpo­rate culture and move away from old ritu­als such as disci­pli­nary critique from the bosses,’ says Stei­ner from Haupt­stadt, poin­ting out one advan­tage of start­ing from zero. ‘We have very flat hier­ar­chies and a stan­dard salary and we regu­larly discuss issues such as mental health impacts in plenary discus­sions.’  Jacoby from Tsüri stres­ses that ‘I would always start some­thing new instead of taking some­thing over.’ He adds that there are no expec­ta­ti­ons of the project, no dead­lo­cked struc­tures, no legacy issues. Howe­ver, start­ing from scratch takes courage. Sharing ideas helps. For Hufschmid from Bajour, one of the great bene­fits he expe­ri­en­ced was the quick access on we.publish to other media follo­wing simi­lar paths. This is because they are often one step ahead. And it offers insights that you are unli­kely to get from estab­lished publishers such as Tame­dia or CH Media. ‘For us, trans­pa­rency and sharing ideas are key. We are a moti­va­ted team that openly admits that we don’t know all the answers – and it’s precis­ely this spirit of toge­ther­ness that shapes us,’ says the Basel-based editor. ‘Lear­ning from each other and working toge­ther to achieve better results is a huge boon.’ The media outlets on we.publish bring toge­ther a culture of open­ness and sharing. After all, they are pursuing a common goal. ‘Media diver­sity is important to us all. That’s why we’re commit­ted to it,’ says Jacoby, who is convin­ced that it makes sense to use the same IT infra­struc­ture and deve­lop it toge­ther. Stei­ner puts the idea of start­ing from scratch into perspec­tive. He points out that there wasn’t really a fresh start as such, as there are other local media outlets with which they are compared and those invol­ved often have a back­ground in conven­tio­nal media.

Social media as a marke­ting tool

Accor­ding to Stei­ner, social media is crucial for reaching youn­ger people. A view Bajour shares. ‘It’s more important than ever to use chan­nels where youn­ger people in parti­cu­lar are actually spen­ding time these days,’ explains Hufschmid. Choo­sing the right chan­nel can be crucial. This is how to get readers onto the website. But he also points out the balan­cing act that this approach entails. Hufschmid high­lights: ‘While social media can build a bridge to the public, jour­na­li­stic content must not be wate­red down.’ For this reason, the Basel-based online outlet has intro­du­ced the ‘Frage des Tages’, or Ques­tion of the Day, which aims to encou­rage dialo­gue beyond X. The aim of this stra­tegy is to create a high-quality discourse that stands apart and goes far beyond the rapid effect of social media. The compe­ti­tion for atten­tion on social media is huge. Nowa­days, every SME and every shop, no matter how small, can make an impact with a campaign. This pres­ents oppor­tu­ni­ties. ‘An article about an SME with a large social media follo­wing can be very helpful in spre­a­ding the media brand,’ says Stei­ner, poin­ting out that few regio­nal SMEs make the effort to main­tain their social media chan­nels on an ongo­ing basis. And Jacoby adds: ‘I see the commer­cial social media chan­nels more as input than compe­ti­tion. What’s more, poli­ti­cal contexts are at the heart of local jour­na­lism and you can’t find these on social media.’

Youn­ger and bolder

Social media has chan­ged how media outlets inter­act with the commu­nity. They offer new oppor­tu­ni­ties for direct exch­ange. Howe­ver, local jour­na­lists have always been accus­to­med to close cont­act with the people they report on. This requi­res a special respon­si­bi­lity because, on the one hand, they have to report criti­cally and, on the other hand, they have to main­tain connec­tions to their own commu­nity. ‘At Bajour, we’re focu­sing on a slightly youn­ger form of jour­na­lism with a slightly diffe­rent tone,’ says Bull­win­kel, ‘but we produce a form of jour­na­lism that is worthy of the name, and we want to have inte­grity, credi­bi­lity and inde­pen­dence.’ The Walli­ser Bote has also repo­si­tio­ned itself in recent years. ‘We’ve become youn­ger. And bolder. And more inde­pen­dent,’ says the head of jour­na­lism. ‘This some­ti­mes leads to discon­tent in the poli­ti­cal sphere. But we write what is, and not what Coun­cil­lors of State want. With publisher Fredy Bayard, who took over in 2018, the publi­shing house is in a strong finan­cial posi­tion. At the moment, we don’t need to fear every threat of a cancel­led subscrip­tion.’ Bayard has since sold the company to its employees ‘for a mode­rate price’. He hopes that, thanks to this owner­ship model, the news­pa­per will belong to the locals for as long as possi­ble and will work along these lines. Rafaela Devo­nas-Eberle belie­ves that regio­nal media can work in a criti­cal and inves­ti­ga­tive way. She points out that there can be chal­lenges due to close ties with local stake­hol­ders and that it is often a balan­cing act between inde­pen­dence and social pres­sure. ‘In the village, people know each other, so you have to be careful and not show ill will towards anyone – for exam­ple, with comm­ents that are “too” criti­cal or an alle­gedly one-sided article. These links can limit the courage to report criti­cally. At the same time, local roots and direct access to rele­vant sources offer oppor­tu­ni­ties to unco­ver issues that major media outlets overlook.’

Paywall ja oder nein

Diffe­rent media outlets use diffe­rent models to fund their services. Bajour and Tsüri rely on the willing­ness to pay thanks to their close and trus­ting rela­ti­onship with their reader­ship. They use crowd­fun­ding for certain projects or rese­arch. Haupt­stadt and the Walli­ser Bote have a paywall. The Walli­ser Bote’s stance is crys­tal clear: ‘If people want regio­nal media, they have to be willing to pay for it. Even online. That’s why we were one of the first Swiss publi­shing houses to intro­duce a hard paywall for our news app back in Septem­ber 2020.’ Nothing is free any more, stres­ses Bieler. Initi­ally, the Valais-based media company faced criti­cism. But Bieler belie­ves there is more under­stan­ding for paywalls, as almost all publishers now have expe­ri­ence with them. Jour­na­lism costs money, and he adds: ‘Since 2020, we’ve mana­ged to increase our subscrip­tion numbers by around 3,000 to almost 18,000. The propor­tion of digi­tal subscrip­ti­ons is over 40 per cent.’ The Haupt­stadt paywall is rela­tively soft. Jürg Stei­ner explains: ‘You can read prac­ti­cally any article on social media for free. Every article can also be read free of charge if the link is shared by someone.’ Haupt­stadt has a subscrip­tion model. Paying for the subscrip­tion ensu­res an unli­mi­ted online expe­ri­ence. Users who do not pay face rest­ric­tions. There is a lot of under­stan­ding for this, accor­ding to Steiner.